


Level of Movement

by goldarrow



Series: Silent!Stephen [13]
Category: Primeval
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 18:23:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17565656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldarrow/pseuds/goldarrow
Summary: Stephen is testing a new communication device.





	Level of Movement

**Author's Note:**

> Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures.
> 
> Lyle and the Special Forces team belong to fredbassett.

 

Level of Movement

 

Stephen stared across the valley, watching a pair of hawks as they soared on the air currents, turning and twisting smoothly in the air. There was no one around, there were no voices, no birdsong, not even a rustle of branches in the trees at the foot of the hill. Standing on the side of the rise, halfway to the crest, he closed his eyes and turned his face up to the sun, feeling the warmth on his skin, enjoying the sensation.

 

His new comm unit burped at him, the abrupt sound bringing his attention back to his job. Keying in the correct sequence on the screen's little keyboard, he opened the line to Ryan's comm.

 

"Stephen, how are you reading me?"

 

The easy part was over – setting the connection. Now the hard part started – remembering the sequences for the various possible responses.

 

With Stephen out on anomaly shouts more often, now that he'd received the go-ahead for participation from Charles Hemingway, one of the highest ranking investigators at Health & Safety and coincidentally an old friend of Lester's, the engineering team at the ARC had started investigating ways for Stephen to communicate more easily with other members of the team.

 

A clone of the original Stephen Hart – having been created by Helen Cutter without vocal cords – his inability to speak had caused problems for both him and the rest of the ARC personnel at first. Once it was discovered that he could sign, everyone he had contact with in the ARC, and others  who simply wanted to know another way of communication, had eagerly learned as well. Signing always worked well for line-of-sight communication, but certainly wasn't effective when Stephen was on the other side of a hill, like right now. Thus, the new text-to-voice communications unit. It was designed to enable him to use shortcuts for various phrases rather than having to laboriously type in long sentences.

 

Holding the unit in both hands, he used his thumbs to press various icons on the screen in a pre-set sequence, hoping he had the right one. He did.

 

"Communication clear," the artificial voice stated, and Stephen relaxed a little. Hopefully with a little time and practise, he would find it easier to remember the sequences.

 

"Great." Ryan's voice sounded as relieved as Stephen felt.

 

The engineering teams had been working hard on this device, and neither Stephen nor Ryan had been looking forward to reporting back that it hadn't worked at all. Somehow they'd managed to pulse the communications to work around an anomaly's interference. At least, they said they did. So far, it hadn't been tested with a real anomaly in the area.

 

"You're clear on my end, too. Now we get a little more complicated, okay? Take your time. What do you see in front of you?"

 

Stephen's relief melted into annoyance. That was a little more than he felt capable of right now. Trust his lover to push the envelope. After venting his feelings in a silent sigh, he squinted down at the screen as the sunlight started to bounce off of it and fade the keys. He turned the unit to try to make the screen more legible, then started pressing buttons again.

 

"Wait," the voice said. Stephen wished he could add in some annoyance to the tone.

 

A few more tentative pokes, and the unit obligingly stated, "Birds in sky, no creatures."

 

"Great," Ryan repeated. "How is it working out?"

 

With a silent growl at his inability to remember what he needed to enter, Stephen flipped open his notebook, checking for the correct sequence. "Bad. Screen not clear."

 

"Not clear? You mean hard to see, or hard to work out what to hit?"

 

By the time Ryan finished, Stephen had managed to work out what to say. "Screen blurry. Sunlight."

 

"Crap. Like the smartphone screens – no good in bright light."

 

"Yes. Needs more -"

 

Stephen spun around when the metal on his backpack buckles yanked him backwards. The last thing he heard was Ryan yelling "Stephen, what's wrong?" as he overbalanced and had to take a few backwards running steps to stay on his feet. He felt the warmth and tingling of an anomaly, then his feet slipped on what was now a muddy slope.

 

Hoping against hope that the anomaly would stay open, he grabbed his gloves from his belt and threw them back through the anomaly as he slid down the hill to land in a heap in the muck at the bottom, sputtering at the cold rain pouring into his face and down his body. Once he stopped skidding, he bent over the comm unit and checked to make sure the tumble hadn't damaged it. Luckily, it seemed to be intact, but not knowing how much waterproofing had been provided, he tucked it inside his shirt for safety's sake

 

The mud slicking his clothing made standing up a cartoonish procedure – he was slipping and sliding around like a duck on a frozen pond. After a herculean effort, Stephen managed to get both feet under him at the same time with his balance fairly stable. He made it to his feet, moving slowly and carefully until he was standing straight. A quick look at the location of the anomaly, halfway up the steep, mud-slick hill, showed him that there was no way he was going to make it back up there without a rope. Breathing a prayer to the gods of errant time travellers, he slid first one foot and then the other slowly across the muddy ground, heading for some rocks not far away. He wanted to stay close to the anomaly, but the idea of wallowing around in the muck until someone could rescue him made him both angry and embarrassed.

 

His hands were both cold and wet, so he tucked them under his arms. It was a great pity that he hadn't had anything else conveniently within reach that he could have thrown through the anomaly for a signal that he was on the other side of time. On the other hand, he counted himself lucky that he hadn't been standing three feet further back when the anomaly opened – he knew that a closing anomaly could bisect a creature, but he didn't know whether an opening one would do the same thing. And he had absolutely no desire to find out.

 

After a fraught five minutes, he made it to the rocks. It took another couple of minutes to work out the best way to climb onto the flat surface. Once he'd scrambled up onto the rock, he felt a little better, bruised forearms and battered hands notwithstanding. The rock wasn't particularly high, but it at least got him out of the mud.

 

Ryan knew where he should have been, and wouldn't take him more than ten minutes to make it to his last known position, and his team another ten after that. Once they were there, it shouldn't take too long for Ryan to set up a safe foray through. Stephen estimated that the team should be arriving in about fifteen more minutes.

 

He squinted through the rain. The anomaly looked as bright and clear as it had when it first opened, so the chances were good that it was going to be a fairly stable one. He was just congratulating himself on what looked to be a pretty good probable outcome when he heard something moving through the forest of ferns. Either something very large, or a lot of somethings fairly small, if the swaying of the ferns was any indicator.

 

A number of naughty and irrelevant phrases started trailing through Stephen's mind. It was at times like this that he wished with all his heart that he could actually speak. The idea of yelling curses at both fate and the creature or creatures heading his way was so very attractive. Unfortunately, he couldn't.

 

But then he sat up. _He_ couldn't, no, but perhaps, just perhaps, he might be able to program the comm to do it for him. He reached inside his shirt, pulled out the unit and his instruction booklet, crouched over them to keep them as dry as possible, and started feverishly tapping the screen.

 

~~***~~

 

Ryan had already been making his way toward Stephen when the comm unit went dead. He'd never tell his lover this, but having Stephen out of the line of sight of every team member when they were on a shout always made him nervous. Stephen prided himself on his self-sufficiency, and Ryan would never do a thing to make him feel that Ryan thought of him as anything but whole. But he still worried.

 

He called through his comm a few times but received no answer, so he upped his speed to a dead run. The hillside had enough rough ground and grassy hillocks that he was having to do some fancy sliding and jumping as he headed for Stephen's last known position. Making a mental note to add something like this to the standard physical fitness drills, he keyed on his regular headset and called the backup team as he ran.

 

"Lyle, get to Stephen's last position. He's disappeared off the comm."

 

"On our way." Lyle's tone was, as always, calm and collected, but Ryan could hear the rest of the team starting to gear up even before the lieutenant finished speaking.

 

Saving his breath for running, Ryan keyed off his mic, put his head down, and upped his speed again as he reached the top of the hill.

 

He saw the anomaly as he crested the hill, and let rip a few curses that would have made Stringer grin as he slid to a stop.

 

"Lyle, we have an anomaly."

 

"What? Fucking how?"

 

Ryan growled. "How the fuck am I supposed to know? There's an anomaly, and no Stephen."

 

Something in the grass in front of the cloudy rip in time caught his eye. Bending down, he picked up Stephen's gloves.

 

"Looks like Stephen's on the other side. His gloves are right in front of it."

 

"And he didn't come back through? Give us another five, we'll be there." Lyle was sounding a bit breathless – he must be running even faster than Ryan had.

 

"Not going to wait, Lyle. Come through when you get here, geared up and on a line, just in case. Since Stephen didn’t come back through, he's either injured or the anomaly's in a place he can't climb back to. I'm going through for a quick recce. Stephen's not armed."

 

"Ryan! Wait for us. We're almost there."

 

"Not a chance. See you on the other side." Ryan tucked the gloves into his belt, took a deep breath, and stepped through the anomaly.

 

Luckily, he was facing forward instead of backward when he went through, so he was able to keep his feet under him as he slid down the hill.

 

He made it to the bottom in one piece, and stayed in a crouch to assess the situation. The first thing he saw was Stephen, standing on the top of a flat boulder, muddy from head to toe. His lover was throwing rocks with great accuracy as the comm unit yelled obscenities at the flock of small raptor-like creatures surrounding the boulder and leaping up toward Stephen.

 

Ryan spared a moment to appreciate Stephen's ingenuity in getting the comm unit to spew some rather original vulgarities before he grabbed a few rocks himself and started toward the flock. The raptors, seeing another one of these loud, muddy creatures coming at them from the side, decided that discretion would definitely be the better part of valour. They headed back into the ferns, squawking like a bunch of drunken parrots as Ryan managed to clout a some of them with a few of his own well-aimed rocks.

 

Ryan stopped at the base of the boulder, fighting the grin that wanted to spread across his face. Stephen was mud from the top of his head to the toes of his boots, and his scowl could probably curdle milk. Then Ryan stiffened. There was a glint of red on Stephen's left hand.

 

"You're bleeding." Ryan started to climb up onto the boulder, but Stephen waved him back.

 

_I caught myself on a sharp rock when I threw it._ The usual smooth flow of Stephen's signing was missing. He winced a couple of times as his hand moved to make the signs.

 

"Stay still," Ryan replied. "I have a med-kit. The team will be here in about five minutes at the most."

 

Ryan pulled himself up beside Stephen, who was still pouting. He pulled out the kit and wiped the blood and mud away from the cut on Stephen's palm. "Not too bad. Looks like it won't even need stitches."

 

Stephen nodded, still looking grumpy.

 

Ryan ran a finger down his lover's muddy face. "At least the rain's stopped."

 

A slight smile quirked Stephen's lips. _You missed the best of it._

 

"Don't you mean the worst?" Ryan cocked his head.

 

_No. You plus rain equals uniform plastered to you. It's a good look on you._

 

Ryan grinned. His lover was going to be fine, if he was already making salacious comments.

 

A loud clank made them turn their heads. Lieutenant Lyle slid down the hill, trailing a couple of extra ropes behind him.

 

"Next train for the Brecon Beacons, leaving from mudslide one in two minutes!" he called.

 

Stephen's head came up and he turned to face Ryan as the captain heard a distant crashing noise.

 

"That sounds fairly large, and definitely unfriendly," Lyle added with a quick glance into the ferns. "Make that one minute if you can."

 

Ryan slid down from the boulder with Stephen right behind him. "Can you climb?" he asked his lover.

 

Stephen made a fist, then nodded with a slight wince. _I might need a refresher bandage afterward,_ he signed.

 

Lyle hooked him up to one of the empty ropes as Ryan efficiently kitted himself. "Ditzy's waiting on the other side." He tugged the rope twice, and Stephen felt it tighten to help him climb the hill.

 

The three men disappeared through the anomaly as a creature, much larger and infinitely more dangerous than the little raptors stalked into the clearing.

 

One last look over his shoulder had Ryan thanking his lucky stars for the efficiency and speed of the ARC's Special Forces teams. Two men, even with one of them armed, still wouldn't be anywhere near a match for a Spinosaurus. The distinctive sail was enough for even a non-expert like Ryan to know what it was. And he was very happy to be as far away from that fucker as possible.

 

The chill of an English autumn brought a curse to his lips as his wet and muddy clothing stuck to him clammily. When they finally arrived at the camp, Stephen didn't look any better than Ryan felt, his face pale and his lips blue with cold. The two men were hurried into the back seat of one of their Range Rovers, blankets wrapped around them and warm cups of coffee pressed into their hands by the backup personnel.

 

"Keep an eye out, Lyle," Ryan ordered, managing somehow to make his lips form the words correctly. Fuck, it was cold, and getting colder. "That creature was a Spinosaurus."

 

"Bugger." Lyle turned and ordered a double watch, fully armed, on the anomaly. That would leave only one armed soldier at the base camp, but he wasn't taking any chances with something that nasty.

 

Stephen's mechanical voice made both men jump, even if neither would ever admit it. "It probably can't climb the hill, but better to be safe."

 

Lyle nodded. "Agreed. Now, both of you back to the ARC. We'll keep you updated." He closed the door, stepped back and tapped the roof of the vehicle.

 

Ryan nodded as their driver smoothly accelerated away from the anomaly. It didn't take long to arrive at the ARC, but Ryan felt like a block of ice anyway. The cup of coffee had kept him warm for about ten minutes, but now he was freezing again, the heating in the SUV notwithstanding. Stephen looked just as miserable, sitting huddled up with his eyes closed.

 

A tentative touch on his hand made his lover open cobalt eyes and smile waveringly. Stephen didn’t try to sign or use the comm machine, he simply gave an exaggerated shudder, and Ryan chuckled.

 

"Me, too. I can't wait to get into the shower."

 

Nodding, Stephen leaned against him but pulled back immediately as the movement pressed the cold fabric against their shoulders.

 

Ryan was groping for something to say but decided not to bother as their vehicle made the hard turn into the ARC's entry. It stopped at the main doors and the two men climbed stiffly out. Both moved as quickly as possible through the halls to the shower, ignoring any and all questions that were being thrown at them by the scientific teams.

 

One of the younger lab technicians followed them into the showers, still barking questions until Ryan turned, placed a muddy hand against his chest, and suggested that he might want to wait until they were dressed in dry clothing before he asked again. A quick glance at Stephen, who was already half naked, made the young man blush and retreat. Even though he couldn’t actually laugh, Stephen's expression let Ryan know exactly what he was thinking.

 

"Agreed." Ryan examined his muddy hand, knowing that the tech was going to have to change clothing, wash his shirt, or go through the rest of the day with a dirty handprint on it. It seemed an appropriate level of revenge.

 

Stripping quickly, Ryan joined Stephen under the largest shower head, approving that his lover had also turned a couple more of the heads so they would hit their sides with hot water. It took copious amounts of shower gel and shampoo to get the remarkably glutinous mud out of their hair and other places that it should never have been able to stick.

 

Ryan finished scrubbing Stephen's head, finding himself turning his movements into caresses. A smile widened Stephen's lips as Ryan slid his hands down Stephen's back, tracing the edges of the lean muscles, wiping suds away with a warm flannel. The wall tiles were warm from the water that had been running down them, so Ryan gently pushed Stephen back, pressing him against the solid surface. Deep blue eyes opened, inviting Ryan to lose himself in their depths.

 

Holding Stephen against the wall, Ryan kissed him, loving how quickly and easily his lover's mouth opened under his. Their tongues tangled as Ryan fought back a noise that was perilously close to a whimper. When breathing started to become an issue, they broke from the kiss. It was becoming difficult for Ryan to think, so in true Special Forces fashion he simply acted.

 

A line of kisses along Stephen's strong jaw started his assault, a sucking kiss under Stephen's ear added a new level of pressure, and a quick nip at the base of Stephen's neck where it joined his shoulder finished the attack. By that time, Stephen was gasping silently, his hands clenching harder and harder on Ryan's shoulders. The slight pain added a fillip of excitement as Ryan raked his fingernails down Stephen's chest, across his abs and down to his cock.

 

Stephen's hips jerked as Ryan's hand encircled him, the warm flesh hardening and expanding in his grip. A few strong strokes had Stephen's back bowing hard as he came, long spurts of come washing down the drain with the water. Ryan held him through the after-tremors, running his hands up and down Stephen's back as his lover shuddered, his head on Ryan's shoulder. After a few moments, Stephen raised his head and kissed Ryan, hard. The pressure and taste had Ryan a fraction off balance, and Stephen flipped their positions so that Ryan had his back to the wall.

 

Ryan couldn't help laughing as Stephen's twinkling eyes met his. But then the laugh turned into a groan as Stephen's tongue traced the same pattern down his body as he had traced down Stephen's with his nails. It wasn't a hand that encircled his cock, though, it was Stephen's hot mouth, the suction just on the high side of too much. He loved it when Stephen's mouth was on him as he got hard, loved feeling himself filling Stephen more with each heartbeat.

 

Once he was fully erect, Stephen swallowed around him, pulling a few curses from Ryan's lips, before drawing back and starting to lash the glans with his tongue as his hands squeezed the base of his cock and tickled his balls. One finger pressed into his arse as Stephen deep-throated him again, and he came with a long drawn-out groan.

 

"Oh, fuck, I needed that," he whispered, pulling Stephen up to fasten their mouths together. He never would get tired of tasting himself on his silent lover's tongue.

 

They both jumped and grinned at each other as Lyle's voice sounded from outside.

 

"Hurry up, you randy buggers. Anomaly's closed, and we have a shitload of freezing soldiers out here wanting to get warm. Without a sideshow to distract them!"

 

"On our way," Ryan replied, after giving Stephen one more tongue-tangling kiss.

 

Ryan turned the water off and led the way back out, giving Lyle a quick clap on the shoulder. "Well done out there."

 

The lieutenant gave an ironic salute as the rest of the team clattered through the door, yanking their clothes off as they bitched about the cold.

 

Stephen smiled at Lyle, leading Ryan over to the lockers to dress.

 

Now they just had to write up their reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
